The study focuses on the concept of the “native speaker” and the “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy. It recognizes the “native speaker” concept primarily as a political and ideological construct and the “native”/“nonnative speaker”... more
The study focuses on the concept of the “native speaker” and the “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy. It recognizes the “native speaker” concept primarily as a political and ideological construct and the “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy mainly as a basis for division and discrimination. The study believes that a strict adherence to “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy as a framework of analysis in linguistics, especially applied linguistics, overlooks certain alternative ways of understanding the speakership of a given language and the possibility of there being covert but more intense forms of language-based division and discrimination. Based on the findings of empirical research conducted at Ohio University in 2011/2012, involving 173 Ohio University undergraduates who considered themselves “native speakers” of English, the study recognizes certain patterns that indicate that the divisions within the “native speaker” category are stronger and more intense than the divis...
The study focuses on the concept of the “native speaker” and the “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy. It recognizes the “native speaker” concept primarily as a political and ideological construct and the “native”/“nonnative speaker”... more
The study focuses on the concept of the “native speaker” and the “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy. It recognizes the “native speaker” concept primarily as a political and ideological construct and the “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy mainly as a basis for division and discrimination. The study believes that a strict adherence to “native”/“nonnative speaker” dichotomy as a framework of analysis in linguistics, especially applied linguistics, overlooks certain alternative ways of understanding the speakership of a given language and the possibility of there being covert but more intense forms of language-based division and discrimination. Based on the findings of empirical research conducted at Ohio University in 2011/2012, involving 173 Ohio University undergraduates who considered themselves “native speakers” of English, the study recognizes certain patterns that indicate that the divisions within the “native speaker” category are stronger and more intense than the division between the “native speaker” and “nonnative speaker” categories.
Nowadays, English is spoken by a larger number of non-native than native speakers. Due to globalization, the number of organizations which introduce English as their corporate language increases. As a result, more and more non-native... more
Nowadays, English is spoken by a larger number of non-native than native speakers. Due to globalization, the number of organizations which introduce English as their corporate language increases. As a result, more and more non-native speakers of English are communicating with each other in a language which is not their mother tongue. Email is a common medium for communication within an organization. The level of politeness in these emails has an impact on the attitude of the reader when evaluating the sender. Non-native speakers of English are known to differ from native speakers with regards to grammatical and pragmatic competence, this effects their way of modifying an email request. To gain insight into the effects of non-native politeness on non-native readers of an email, their attitudes and perceptions of intelligibility of the sender were measured. A one-factorial between subject design was used to measure the effect of three different versions of request modification (unmodified-slightly modified-elaborately modified) on the comprehensibility and the attractiveness of the e-mail as well as on the competence, the likability and the trustworthiness of the writer. All 80 participants were Dutch non-native speakers of English. The version with the elaborate request modification scored significantly higher on the likability of the writer. In addition, receivers of an email with elaborate modification were expected to be more likely to comply to the request made than those of the email with no modification at all. This would seem to lend support to the assumption that politeness in an email request positively effects the likability of the non-native writer when writing to another non-native speaker of English.
Research suggests that the size of the second language (L2) vowel inventory relative to the native (L1) inventory may affect the discrimination and acquisition of L2 vowels. Models of non-native and L2 vowel perception stipulate that... more
Research suggests that the size of the second language (L2) vowel inventory relative to the native (L1) inventory may affect the discrimination and acquisition of L2 vowels. Models of non-native and L2 vowel perception stipulate that naïve listeners' non-native and L2 perceptual patterns may be predicted by the relationship in vowel inventory size between the L1 and the L2. Specifically, having a smaller L1 vowel inventory than the L2 impedes L2 vowel perception, while having a larger one often facilitates it. However, the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model specifies that it is the L1–L2 acoustic relationships that predict non-native and L2 vowel perception, regardless of L1 vowel inventory. To test the effects of vowel inventory size vs. acoustic properties on non-native vowel perception, we compared XAB discrimination and categorization of five Dutch vowel contrasts between monolinguals whose L1 contains more (Australian English) or fewer (Peruvian Spanish) vowels than Dutch. No effect of language background was found, suggesting that L1 inventory size alone did not account for performance. Instead, participants in both language groups were more accurate in discriminating contrasts that were predicted to be perceptually easy based on L1–L2 acoustic relationships, and were less accurate for contrasts likewise predicted to be difficult. Further, cross-language discriminant analyses predicted listeners' categorization patterns which in turn predicted listeners' discrimination difficulty. Our results show that listeners with larger vowel inventories appear to activate multiple native categories as reflected in lower accuracy scores for some Dutch vowels, while listeners with a smaller vowel inventory seem to have higher accuracy scores for those same vowels. In line with the L2LP model, these findings demonstrate that L1–L2 acoustic relationships better predict non-native and L2 perceptual performance and that inventory size alone is not a good predictor for cross-language perceptual difficulties.
In this talk, I focused on the ideological dimension of the 'native speaker' concept and the 'native speaker'/'nonnative speaker' dichotomy with a focus on how these apparently linguistic, and therefore 'non-political,' concepts... more
In this talk, I focused on the ideological dimension of the 'native speaker' concept and the 'native speaker'/'nonnative speaker' dichotomy with a focus on how these apparently linguistic, and therefore 'non-political,' concepts constituted a basis for division and discrimination. Focusing on the homogenizing tendencies of the two concepts, I discussed how these blanket terms are used to neutralize more intense forms of division and discrimination mainly within the 'native speaker' category. Showing how the notion of subalterneity played into the said dichotomy, I talked about the ways in which the dichotomy rendered nonstandard native speakers "spaceless."
